Chicago to China

But you won't believe it, 'cause it ain't true …

"Chicago," Sufjan Stevens
"Chicago Seemed Tired Last Night," The Hold Steady
"The Chicken," The Choir
"Chicken Crosses the Road," Terry Scott Taylor
"Chief," Patty Griffin
"Child Killers," The Delgados
"Child of the Wild Blue Yonder," John Hiatt
"Child of the Wind," Bruce Cockburn
"Children of the Revolution," Violent Femmes
"Children's Crusade," Sting
"Children's Story," Tom Waits
"Chillout Tent," The Hold Steady
"China," Randy Stonehill
"China," Tori Amos

For fans of Christian-brand rock, that's Ashley Cleveland singing backup in the John Hiatt video linked above. Cleveland has great pipes and recorded a few too-good-for-CCM albums back in the day. Her latest, "God Don't Never Change," is a great example of what she's capable of. (And also, I think, of what she's not willing to be capable of — like producing soulless Christian-radio friendly songs restricted to the shallow approved topics. Like that unfortunate Randy Stonehill song above.)

There are a few examples in the above list of something hard-to-pin-down or describe that I find compelling in music. Patti Griffin's "Chief" seems like a sad song, the sad story of a damaged person, but the effect of it is somehow uplifting and encouraging. Same thing goes for Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago," which doesn't feel like a song that repeats the refrain "I made a lot of mistakes." And in a very different vein, Tom Waits' "Children's Story" is so hilariously bleak that it almost comes across as cheerful. Are these sad songs or happy songs? Yes. I like songs like that.